Chinese students' attitudes towards US universities in the US–China conflict

Abstract

AbstractGlobalization has been the catalyst of world economic development in the past decades. However, the phenomenon has recently been severely challenged by a wave of deglobalization. Within this new trend, the conflict between the United States (US) and China has attracted the attention of scholars from various fields because of the two countries' significance in the world economy. In this study, we focus on the higher education sector, which is highly relevant to globalization, and explore the factors that may affect Chinese college students' attitudes towards US universities, including country image, cultural openness, consumer animosity and perceived quality. In particular, we distinguish between cognitive and affective animosity and test their different impacts on students' attitudes. The results show that students' perception of the US's image positively influences attitudes towards the country's universities thanks to the mediation of perceived quality. Moreover, cultural openness and cognitive animosity are positively related to attitudes, whereas affective animosity exerts a negative impact on attitudes. The implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.